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B.J. Cunningham overview and analysis nfl.com

Cunningham has been a highly regarded prospect. He has size for the position and is a very polished, well-rounded receiver. He was a durable starter, making him a solid third-round value.Analysis

Strengths

Cunningham is very savvy off the ball when getting into his route, using his core strength to swat away hands and lean on corners. He has very quick feet and can get corners off balance in-route, and can burst and then snap routes off quickly, gaining separation. He is a good zone-feel receiver who likes to sit in holes, catch the ball and work upfield. He is a strong and physical player who makes his presence felt when blocking downfield. Weaknesses

Cunningham can struggle if he doesn't get open quickly with his footwork. He can be physical in routes, which at times can allow defensive backs to run in-phase with him.

well the marshall trade cost us two second rounders. are bj and rishard second round values?

Considering how many balls Marshall dropped last year(Especially all the early TDs he dropped), if both BJ and Rashard contribute, and are consistant (very little, to no drops) It will pretty much even out.

I doubt niether will ever be as good as Marshall, but if you end up with as much or more production from both receivers combined, you can feel good at the end of the day, especially without all the off-field issues.

First, what he does well. He runs slants and drags/crossers really well. He has steady balance during his run which lets him see the ball and snatch it with his hands without breaking stride one bit, and this is one of the first things I noticed about him at Shrine practice. When he's not running a route where he can run through the catch, he stays balanced, gathers his feet under him very quickly, and that makes him ready to run after the catch immediately. He's pretty big at 6'1" and 211 lbs, and that helps him break marginal tackle attempts from smaller players. He gets north-south very quickly in his run after catch and his size helps him get an extra yard or two even after solid contact. He's a smart player that can recognize the leverage of his coverage on the run and knows how to adjust his route accordingly so that a quarterback can throw him open. His eyes and balance help him adjust to the ball in the air. He can execute a scramble drill.

Now what he's not good at. He has no real lower body strength or explosion. He doesn't run outs, comebacks or curls with the kind of burst out of his break that you want to see because he's not a very explosive player and lacks the leg strength. He's not fast and he won't outrun anyone. His lack of leg strength and explosiveness means he can't make sharp cuts or get creative with his run after catch, so big plays will be at a minimum with him. That's why he's a no-nonsense north-south runner after the catch. He has no choice. His lack of lower body explosion means that he can't go up real strong for the football in contested/jump ball situations, nor are his hands very strong for those situations either. Getting off the jam will be a big test for him because he lacks both lower body and upper body strength (12 bench reps). He did this OK against smaller, non-physical corners at the college level, but bigger, more physical corners clearly gave him trouble at the jam, and when he gets to the NFL the players most likely to jam him will be those big and/or physical corners.

That's the player I saw. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's good enough. When I hear "he's just a great football player" that's often code for "he's productive but I don't know why". It's also usually an indication to me that a coach was involved in the pick. My guess is either Philbin or O'Keefe had a lot to do with the Cunningham pick, whereas Jeff Ireland had more to do with the Rishard Matthews pick.

Now what he's not good at. He has no real lower body strength or explosion. He doesn't run outs, comebacks or curls with the kind of burst out of his break that you want to see because he's not a very explosive player and lacks the leg strength. He's not fast and he won't outrun anyone. His lack of leg strength and explosiveness means he can't make sharp cuts or get creative with his run after catch, so big plays will be at a minimum with him. That's why he's a no-nonsense north-south runner after the catch. He has no choice. His lack of lower body explosion means that he can't go up real strong for the football in contested/jump ball situations, nor are his hands very strong for those situations either. Getting off the jam will be a big test for him because he lacks both lower body and upper body strength (12 bench reps). He did this OK against smaller, non-physical corners at the college level, but bigger, more physical corners clearly gave him trouble at the jam, and when he gets to the NFL the players most likely to jam him will be those big and/or physical corners.

On the curls/comebacks, you'll have to excuse my ignorance because I'm certainly no expert on route running. I went and watched a solid chunk of his games, and I noticed on curls a lot of the time, he'd get a hard release up to the break point. Instead of getting a strong, hard cut back by planting his leg - he'd almost stop and just sort of turn around quickly. It wasn't so much a cut as a spin back to face the QB. The best example I can find is in this year's Michigan game in the 3rd quarter at 2:43 in the game. Is this something they would coach at Michigan State, is it just a technique I'm not familiar with, am I just crazy, or is this what you're talking about?

I kind of informally counted drops when I watched about 4 games of Cunningham's. I came out with about 4 drops in 4 games. Based on the number of passes to him during those games, I came out to something like a 13% drop rate - which according to PFF is about the same as Brandon Marshall. I tried to make sure they were definite concentration drops, but doesn't mean Cousins wasn't just throwing a bad ball either. Something to think about, not sure if it was the size of his hands or just concentration problems.

There were a few times, mostly in the Michigan and Ohio State games, where I saw him drag about two to three defenders after the catch on a slant route for a first down. Those plays reminded me of Bess about two or three years ago (I don't know if we saw it much last year) where he would stay up and push for more yards with his legs. Like you said, it could just be a product of smaller defenders. It's likely he can't translate that to the strength of the NFL, I'm not sure many can.

I can't seem to find any cutups of the Nebraska game for Cunningham. I remember Cousins and MSU having an awful game, I'd be curious to see how Cunningham fared against Dennard (assuming Dennard wasn't on Keshawn Martin). I see that he had zero catches in that game, was that a product of Dennard or was Cousins just as bad as I remember him being then? If so, I'm not sure that bodes particularly well.

On the curls/comebacks, you'll have to excuse my ignorance because I'm certainly no expert on route running. I went and watched a solid chunk of his games, and I noticed on curls a lot of the time, he'd get a hard release up to the break point. Instead of getting a strong, hard cut back by planting his leg - he'd almost stop and just sort of turn around quickly. It wasn't so much a cut as a spin back to face the QB. The best example I can find is in this year's Michigan game in the 3rd quarter at 2:43 in the game. Is this something they would coach at Michigan State, is it just a technique I'm not familiar with, am I just crazy, or is this what you're talking about?

I kind of informally counted drops when I watched about 4 games of Cunningham's. I came out with about 4 drops in 4 games. Based on the number of passes to him during those games, I came out to something like a 13% drop rate - which according to PFF is about the same as Brandon Marshall. I tried to make sure they were definite concentration drops, but doesn't mean Cousins wasn't just throwing a bad ball either. Something to think about, not sure if it was the size of his hands or just concentration problems.

There were a few times, mostly in the Michigan and Ohio State games, where I saw him drag about two to three defenders after the catch on a slant route for a first down. Those plays reminded me of Bess about two or three years ago (I don't know if we saw it much last year) where he would stay up and push for more yards with his legs. Like you said, it could just be a product of smaller defenders. It's likely he can't translate that to the strength of the NFL, I'm not sure many can.

I can't seem to find any cutups of the Nebraska game for Cunningham. I remember Cousins and MSU having an awful game, I'd be curious to see how Cunningham fared against Dennard (assuming Dennard wasn't on Keshawn Martin). I see that he had zero catches in that game, was that a product of Dennard or was Cousins just as bad as I remember him being then? If so, I'm not sure that bodes particularly well.

Well, these are option routes, not curls/comebacks. Cunningham has to hitch up at the mark... if the ball isn't on him when he turns around, he has to drift inside or out from there to find the soft spot in the zone dependent upon how the defender is playing his zone.

A curl is a turn towards the hash out of your break and works back towards the quarterback and back down the stem of the route. A comeback is a break away from the hash towards the sideline and works back towards the quarterback. A comeback doesn't work back down the stem.